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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29089833">The Truth Be Told</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tlk_Fan/pseuds/Tlk_Fan'>Tlk_Fan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Last Kingdom (TV), The Warrior Chronicles | The Saxon Stories - Bernard Cornwell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Long-Term Relationship(s), Love/Hate, title/tags/warning may change</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:00:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,823</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29089833</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tlk_Fan/pseuds/Tlk_Fan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Brida and Uhtred meet in Loidis to figure out how to avenge Ragnar's death and get him from Niflhelm to Valhalla. The former lovers are both grieving, lonely and cold.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Brida/Ragnar implied, Brida/Uhtred of Bebbanburg</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Since the night in the great hall</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I haven't written anything in a VERY long time and this is my first time posting any Fanfic.  I will probably still edit this as I am not totally pleased with a few parts and have to work out some chronology issues such as Brida's curse/how and when it was lifted.  That being said, although I am nervous to post this, I am very interested in any and all concrit  given to me(and I really am not at all sure about ratings and tags and what not!).</p><p>addendum march 2021: This started out as a story about OFC Ama the shield maiden and somehow quickly evolved into an Uhtred/Brida back story. However, only the very first paragraph included Ama. Since it has been so long since I worked on this,  I decided to delete that and let this story stand on its own.  At some point I may write another fic that includes Ama and make it a sequel but I wanted to feel like this one was finished</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That frigid night next to the lake at Loidis near Ragnar’s grave, she knew Uhtred would come. He would come to mourn Ragnar and probably rage with the guilt inside of himself because his brother was dead and he feels responsible.  It was a night that was filled with grief and sorrow, despair and loss, yet ended with understanding and some form of unconventional love.  A love you can only have for someone when you have known them as long as Brida and Uhtred knew each other.  No matter how desperately they tried to ignore the heaviness of the air and the unspoken words between them while seeking out a way to get Ragnar from Niflheim to Valhalla, they eventually could not resist the pull of each other any longer.<br/>
Uhtred and Brida. Brida and Uhtred. Theirs was a bond that, despite the years and differences between them, only got stronger as time went on.  Since that first night in the stairs in the great hall as children, when Uhtred took her hand, they became a part of each other.  They may not have always liked each other and sometimes out right despised one another, but each of them had a hole the shape of the other somewhere in the depths of their being.<br/>
Brida had no plan or intention on humping Uhtred that night, in fact she was still bitterly angry with him for abandoning Ragnar.  If Uhtred had stayed at Dunholm, instead of leaving to save that bony-arsed Saxon princess, Ragnar would most likely still be alive.  Brida could not yet forgive him for that. To be honest, she wan’t sure if she ever could.<br/>
However, Uhtred’s revelation to her that night in Loidis shook Brida to her core.  All these years… the resentment felt towards him, the feeling of abandonment of his Danish family because of the decision he made… it was like a wound left to fester.  Uhtred had never given a reason for swearing loyalty to Alfred and becoming his oathman for the rest of Alfred’s reign.  He had simply told Ragnar as they parted ways in Wintanchester that day that he “had his reasons.”  Brida, in the tiniest corner of her being, knew that there had to be some rational reason for Uhtred to allow himself to become Alfred’s dog once again, his leash tied to the throne of Wessex.  Of course them both being the stubborn people they were, the matter had just been pushed away and their lives drifted apart.  Nevertheless, not understanding Uhtred’s reasoning had always bothered Brida, like a stone in her boot that she couldn’t get rid of.<br/>
So finally, while sitting in front of the fire in the woods at Loidis, the air as cold as Niflheim itself, he finally told her the truth of the matter.  His gave his oath to Alfred in exchange for Ragnar’s life.  Alfred had put Uhtred in a no-win situation  and he had no choice but to bend the knee to Alfred.  Alfred knew what he was doing when he sent Ragnar off on a mission to rescue Uhtred from the slave ship.  As Leofric always said, “The bastard thinks.”  Even if he hadn’t killed that priest in Cumbraland, Alfred would have thought of something to tie him to Wessex.  So what could he do?  There was only one option. Sacrifice his freedom and his chance at regaining Bebbanburg in order to save his brother’s life.  ‘How could she have ever doubted him?, ’ Brida though to herself</p><p>	“So, am I back in your good graces now, woman?” Uhtred asked, elbows propped on his knees as he leaned into the fire.  He turned his face towards her and gave one of those self-satisfied, cheeky grins trying to lighten the sorrowful atmosphere that had been lingering in the air since eating dinner earlier.<br/>
“I suppose” replied Brida, attempting to still sound angry, “but… you won’t be completely absolved until we find a way to get Ragnar out of Niflheim and into Valhalla. I cannot just sit here and think of him stuck there! It haunts me in my dreams.”   She looked at Uhtred in despair, her eyebrows knitted together, eyes glassy as she tried to hold back the tears.  Uhtred reached over and cupped her cheek in his rough calloused palm, brushing a tear away with his thumb. While earnestly looking her straight in the eye, he promised yet another oath.<br/>
“I swear to you Brida, I will not rest until we have done that exact thing.  Ragnar WILL see Valhalla yet or I will die trying.  Come here” he pleaded with her in an attempt to offer some comfort to his oldest friend.  Brida just cocked her head as she looked at him with one eyebrow raised.  It had been many years since they had been under the furs together but she still knew that look in his eye.<br/>
“What?!” Uhtred said in response to her look. “I am just trying keep us warm!”<br/>
“Well, as long as that is  your only intention.  And she slid over, under his arm, Uhtred wrapping his large woolen cloak around the both of them and they stared into the fire, passing a skin of ale back and forth.  There was no awkwardness, only comfort for these two souls that had know each other for so long. There was an unspoken feeling between them like they had made it back home again, back were they belonged.<br/>
After a time Uhtred spoke up. “Brida, my vixen, you have been half my life and all of my madness.” Then, as he touched his forehead to hers,  “We WILL succeed in doing this. I can feel it deep inside of me.  Besides,” as he chuckled lightly, “I am sure you would have my balls if I didn’t see this through.”  With a laugh, she smacked him on the chest and rested her head on his shoulder.  As she breathed in his smell of leather and woodsmoke she was thinking that now she was just as unsure of her own intention as she was of his.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Make me whole again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Uhtred comforts Brida over Ragnar's death</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For what seemed like hours, Uhtred and Brida stayed that way, in front of the fire, drinking from not only the skin of ale but from each other’s warmth.  The long winter nights seemed to be never-ending that time of year.  They laughed, they cried, they fell into companionable silences as only those joined in the soul can do. Regardless of all the ugliness that had come and gone in their relationship over the years, they still loved each other.<br/>	It wasn’t an ordinary, fluffy, romantic love. It wasn’t just like a love between long time friends or lovers; their lives were intertwined with one another.  They were connected in a primal, basic way… the way a body needs air or a tree needs the sun.  The three spinners had taken their life strings and knitted them together in such a way that they could not be torn apart, regardless of how they tried.  </p>
<p>	As the fire began to die down, Brida could not help nodding off.  These last few days of extreme sorrow had caught up with her.  It was as if her body was telling her that it was okay to finally rest.  Uhtred gently nudged Brida, leading her to their bedrolls.  She initially protested about them lying next to one another but finally gave in to common sense, given how cold the night air was - even for two warriors raised as Danes.  <br/>	When they lied down next to one another, the first time in many years, Uhtred pulled his cloak up to her chin, already warm from the fire.  She couldn’t help but become even more sleepy.  He laid their other furs on top of them as they settled in for the night.  Brida looked into Uthred’s clear blue eyes, illuminated by the last remnants of the fire.  Tracing the scar on his temple given to him by Earl Ragnar, her index finger slid down until it rested on his full, bottom lip.  This hardened shieldmaiden, who had taken many lives without regret, finally allowed herself to soften, if only a little bit.  <br/>“Thank you, Uhtred,” she said, in barely more than a whisper.  “I couldn’t do this with anyone but you. Despite me questioning your loyalty over and over again, you are here; And I believe Ragnar knows it too.”  Before Uhtred could muster a reply, she curled into his chest and drifted off to sleep.  </p>
<p>	Brida had seemed to fall into a deep peaceful sleep.  Uhtred was relieved as he knew how tired she must have been; not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well.  He himself however found that sleep was hard to come by.  As a general rule, while sleeping in the woods, his warrior instincts never let him put his guard down completely.  Serpent- Breath was at his side and Wasp-Sting was still attached to his right hip.  In addition to that, his guilty feeling over Ragnar’s death kept assaulting his mind every time he managed to drift off to sleep.  <br/>	In the early morning hours before dawn, when the sky has just a hint of gray on the horizon, Uhtred was startled from his light sleep. Instinctively he grabbed for Serpent-Breath but quickly realized she was not needed.  It was Brida.  She was still asleep but whimpering and moaning incoherently, her face contorted in fear. As Uhtred reached over to grasp her shoulder she shouted Ragnar’s name despairingly.  Uhtred’s touch jolted her awake as she turned and buried herself into his embrace.  <br/>	“Shhh… Shhh…” Uhtred whispered, his face buried in her hair.  “It was a dream, no more.” trying to comfort her as he pulled her tight, rubbing her back with soothing circles.  <br/>	“How do I go on?!” Brida cried, her fists clenched his tunic and pushing against Uhtred’s chest.  <br/>	“You will go on because it is what he would want for you.  He would want you to be happy!”  <br/>Without thinking, Uhtred gently brushed his lips across Brida’s forehead, lightly kissing it.  He then kissed her tears away from her eyes, then the tip of her nose.  As he went to kiss another tear off her cheek, Brida turned her head so her lips met his.  It was as if no time at all had passed since their last kiss, so many years ago in Wintanchester.  The two of them fit together and they always would.  As they drew apart, Brida looked up at him, her head cradled in his strong grip, ragged breaths coming from both of them.  They could speak to each other without words.  Flashes of their past flew by in both of their minds.  Their destiny did not include the two of them being together for the rest of this life, but tonight… tonight had a fate of its own.<br/>Brida, voice hoarse with emotion, managed to whisper “Make me whole again, Uhtred.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed this first part of my story even though I feel like I stumbled over a few sections - looking forward to straightening them out! Again, I welcome any concrit you may have and thank you for reading this!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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